Correlation of aberrant proliferation with T-cell growth factor in adult T-cell leukemia cells.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from seven patients with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) were found to lack PHA-responsiveness. However, in most of the cases, minute but distinct proliferation could be induced and maintained by human spleen cell conditioned medium containing PHA or by a combination of PHA and conditioned medium of gibbon cell line, MLA-144 (MLA-144 CM). These results indicate that the lack of response to mitogens of ATL cells might be attributed not only to the failure of these cells to produce T-cell growth factor (TCGF) upon activation, but also to their poor responsiveness to TCGF. Furthermore, a direct proliferative response to mitogen-free MLA-144 CM was shown in two out of seven patients; these two patients experienced rapidly progressive clinical courses. This observation raises the possibility that TCGF promotes the growth of ATL cells in vivo, and is related to the clinical course of the disease.